I started lifting a year and a half ago, but became more serious just this year. I started with Starting Strength and then moved to a fairly standard bodybuilding 5 day split (Chest, Back, Arms, Shoulders, Legs/Other). I'm happy to receive advice about my diet and the lifts.

I've had a bad september and early october where I struggled to complete my work outs, often feeling fatigued and sick. I've had to de-load across the board on every exercise. Part of the reason I am posting here is to help get me back on track. I think this forum will also help me build more awareness about healthy eating. I am feeling pretty good today- things are looking uphill. I haven't been able to capture that great feeling from working out today, but I know it will come back with discipline and repetition.

First thing I'll say: take your legs more seriously. You mentioned "legs/other" like it's an afterthought at the end of your list...and wrote out four upper body workouts, and nothing for legs. Your lower body is half your body...without it, don't expect your upper body to progress.

The fact that you're "fatigued and sick" screams that your food intake is way off for your needs. Nobody really cares about the specifics about what you eat...but moreso the big picture: calories and macronutrients. What are they, and what's your stats, and what is your TDEE?

Look, all someone at your (and my) level needs to progress is squats. All the other stuff is just fluff really. If you have issues with your knees etc then isolation exercises can be really useful to get a pump in your muscles safely. But if you're healthy and have no existing joint issues then I say work damn hard at those squats! if your form is good then it'll work your entire (yes, entire) lower body. Thanks to Lombard's Paradox your quads and hamstrings work simultaneously to squat, even your ankle and calves get their share of the work. Anyway, sorry to harp on there, I love that exercise ;D

About your diet, do you practice IF? You've only listed two meals. They look like they couldn't possibly total more than 1500kcal am I right? If your goal is to get strength, then you'll likely need more calories.

I recently bought a business. I am $120,000 in debt for my business and $230,000 in debt for student loans. Most of my time is spent working or driving to and from work. I often feel tired when I get home from work, especially when I didn't sleep much the night before or when I eat poorly. I find that lack of sleep begets poor eating (due to lack of prep time) and poor eating begets poor sleep and exercise habits. This week I fell into the all too familiar routine of not getting enough sleep, not having time to prep my meals in the morning, and then eating poorly, and then feeling too tired to work out. One of my main goals for posting here is to improve my awareness of this negative cycle and correct my sleep/diet so that I can have better and more frequent work outs. Time management is going to help me control my sleep and diet more than anything else. Ironically tonight I stayed up till 11:30 writing this log instead of sleeping; hope it was worth it.

jmf wrote:First thing I'll say: take your legs more seriously. You mentioned "legs/other" like it's an afterthought at the end of your list...and wrote out four upper body workouts, and nothing for legs. Your lower body is half your body...without it, don't expect your upper body to progress.

The fact that you're "fatigued and sick" screams that your food intake is way off for your needs. Nobody really cares about the specifics about what you eat...but moreso the big picture: calories and macronutrients. What are they, and what's your stats, and what is your TDEE?

Thank you. I'm planning to integrate squats 3x a week. The last couple months there was something in particular making me fatigue and sick feeling, so just being done with that will be good for me, but my diet and sleep is going to be big for improving the fatigue too! I'm not sure what my TDEE is. I did spend a couple weeks attempting to calculate it but I just couldn't find the time (a big issue for me). I have been between 170-174 lbs for over a year now, have lost some fat and gained muscle .

Skeering wrote:I agree with jmf, there's no workout for your legs!

Look, all someone at your (and my) level needs to progress is squats. All the other stuff is just fluff really. If you have issues with your knees etc then isolation exercises can be really useful to get a pump in your muscles safely. But if you're healthy and have no existing joint issues then I say work damn hard at those squats! if your form is good then it'll work your entire (yes, entire) lower body. Thanks to Lombard's Paradox your quads and hamstrings work simultaneously to squat, even your ankle and calves get their share of the work. Anyway, sorry to harp on there, I love that exercise ;D

About your diet, do you practice IF? You've only listed two meals. They look like they couldn't possibly total more than 1500kcal am I right? If your goal is to get strength, then you'll likely need more calories.

Thank you. I will incorporate squats 3x a week. I listed 2 meals because that day had not been completed yet/I had not yet eaten dinner. I am 28, male, 5"10, 172lbs. My longterm goals are body building/appearance. Since I am early on I am focused on strength. I also incorporating some cardio in the form of boxing and running but that is more for social and confidence purposes. Priority is body building.